In the BIGinning...

Two years ago I was the heaviest I'd ever been. A whopping 248 pounds and I felt miserable! I wasn't fully living, I was existing. Sure, I did fun stuff. I socialized. I had activities I was involved in. But there was plenty that I dreamed of doing and I was not doing it at 248 pounds.

I considered sending in a tape to The Biggest Loser..."Jesaca, you have an awesome story. They'd totally take you!", said my closest friend. But, who would I ask to take my girls? Could I do that to them? We had only just begun to settle into our life after losing their dad two and a half years previous. I didn't want to put them through another transition.

But, I knew something had to change...

This journey toward fitness, wholeness really, restoration, began with a sniffle. I was sick. Then I became sicker. One trip to Urgent Care, two prescriptions, a trip to Disney, a chest x-ray and almost five weeks went by and I was still sick. After another visit to the doctor I was given a third prescription and told if I wasn’t better after this course of meds I could expect to have a sinus scan.

I knew what that meant and I wasn’t thrilled about anyone going at my sinuses with a scalpel.

Not to mention the nose packing afterwards that would have me looking like a cat for several days! No way.

I headed home from the appointment without bothering to fill the prescription. I knew why I felt so miserable. I didn’t take care of myself. My diet had been crappy. Exercise that involved any effort was non-existent. The body just doesn’t accept the excuse of being a tired, overwhelmed single mom that finds it much easier to order pizza or pop in chicken nuggets or corn dogs with a frozen veggie than creating a healthy meal for myself and my girls. I had run myself ragged and didn’t get enough rest, keeping busy and trying to escape the reality that my life is my life and will continue to be not exactly what I planned. It was time to get real and stop lying to myself.

So, I started consuming massive quantities of garlic. Yes, RAW. Every day.

After about a week, I was feeling much better! However, I was still dragging around and couldn’t seem to get any energy. It was time for a visit to Dr. Joe.

I was ready to do a cleanse.

By now it was the end of November and Dr. Joe wouldn’t let me do a cleanse! Not until after Christmas he told me.

So, I began to prepare mentally and emotionally. I’d done one before and I knew what it would take to come through it successfully. I organized my schedule around those 21 days. I canceled any plans with friends that might interfere…dinner dates especially. I knew what would be required of my willpower.

Supplements, protein shakes and raw fruits and vegetables for 21 days. I knew I could expect to feel awful for 2 or 3 of the first four days. Sure enough, achy body and headache assaulted full force. But by day 4 I was feeling like a new woman!

I wanted to be sure to pump all of the toxic garbage out of my system and committed myself to walking on the treadmill 3 or 4 times a week to get my lymphatic system moving.

At some point during that 3 week cleanse a strange thought popped into my head. I found myself wondering, “Could I run?”. That day I ran for 2 minutes.

Wow!

From that moment I began to push my running time up by adding a little bit more each week. I finished the cleanse feeling wonderful and dropped weight by 24 pounds and my cholesterol by 55 points. I decided to continue walking/running 2-3 times a week. I was determined to hang on to this new discipline in my life.

I was running-who ’da thought!